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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2007: September 1, 1906

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septeniDer i, lyuu XVJiiV^V/ l\±^ iii.'l J-' ^.^KJ XX-/J-LJ ESTABUSHED ■S8?'' ^CHEl'J.'^lSeB. Dd^t^ P f^E^L Estate . BulLDl^'G A,acrfrrECTjRE ,t{ousCMoLD DEQtaifTTorf, BJsiriEss Ai^Themes of CEfiER^l- Ij^TERfsi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published every Saturday Comraunlcatlons sliould be aiidrossed to C. W. SWEET Downtown Olfice: 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 Uptown OI[ice: 11-13 East 24th Street Telephone, Madison Square 1696 ''Entered ai the Tost Office at New York, N. Y,. as second-class matter.'' Vol, LXXVIIl, SEPTEMBER 1, 190t>. No, 2007 .INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page, Page. Cement .....................xxiii Law..........:............xl Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber ...................xxviii Clay Products...............xxii Machinery ....................iv Contractors and Builders.......v Metal Work ................xvil Electrical Interests...........viii Quick Job Directory.........xxvii Fireproofing ..................li Real Estate .................xill Granite .....................xxiv Roofers & Roofing Mater'Is, .x>;vi Heating .......................xx Stone .......................xxiv Iron and Steel..............xviii Wood Products ............xxviii WHEN the amount of cumulative bull material at hand is taken Into consideration the stock market continues to act in a "safe and sane" manner. The failure of the Real Estate Trust Company of Philadelphia this week is a misfortune gener¬ ally, and not only to those individuals immediately interested. It will serve to accentuate the increasing fear that exists with reference to the so-called real estate speculation. There is prob¬ ably, on the ■whole, no unreasonable speculation in real estate any more than there is in securities. The temper of the financial and business world is conservative, and most people are managing their affairs with excess of caution. As to this particular failure, the institution was regarded as one of the strongest financially in Philadelphia. Its late president, Frank H. Hippie, since its incorporation in 1885 had placed it in the front rank of the city's financial concerns. The immediate effect was naturally a sharp reaction in the stock market on Tuesday afternoon, which interrupted the advance, but never¬ theless there is still confidence that the advance will continue with renewed vigor. The local character of the collapse of the company was manifest, and the stock market effect seems to have passed, and really was entirely what it deserved to be, for the reason that this failure was not a notice of unsound intrinsic business conditions. With Tegard to the money situation there is a growing feeling that our banking interests have it well in hand. They know that they can command ample gold supplies from Europe whenever required. Further, if neces¬ sary, Secretary Shaw has ample funds at his command to come to the relief of the money market. Reverting again to this Philadelphia Real Estate Trust Company's failure, it may be said that it is already almost forgotten, an evidence of the strong underlying fundamental conditions and the general pros¬ perity of the country. Whether the receivership is to bs onlj tempo'rary and the company to shortly resume business at an early day is not yet determined, but certain it is that Wall Street has resumed its usual normal conditions and the market cannot be said to have been hurt much. There were individuals who suffered, of course, as there always are on such breaks, which play havoc with lightly,margined accounts, and is apt to make the victim believe that the bottom has tumbled out of the market. It was surprising indeed to see how stocks thrown on the market were snatched up. and the attempt to break the list ,to any great e^itent proved futile. The Record and Guide does-not assume to possess the gift of prophecy, but the course of the stock and money markets for some time past has been very much as has been anticipated in these columns. record of the similar period in the previous year. Presumably Cor reasons based on the new mortgage tax law, the filings of mortgages continue to exceed in number the business done in this line last year, but they have not been nearly so numerically large as some authorities expected. In fact, in most par¬ ticulars, if an exception is made for speculative tenement house operations, the aspect of the real estate field is quite normal for this season throughout the whole city. It is to be said, however, tliat the public appetite for investment property has been somewhat appeased, and the buying movement may on this account be less strong than in the spring. In Brooklyn brokers are expressing expectations of a "selling" movement in the fall, in contradistinction to the prolonged "buying" movement they have had there, the sellers iu this event to be owners and investors rather than builders. Prices have advanced and har¬ dened to such an extent in Brooklyn, that Queens has derived a great benefit therefrom. For those for whom real "estate and building interests have a fascination, a run through Queens is a thrilling recreation. All the signs and symbols of a boom can there be viewed. Not since the elevated railways were opened in Manhattan has there been such a field of excitement in and around New York City. Many new and not a few old city firms of brokers have opened ofiices in Queens, while of operators new and old in the trade the number is incalculable. Perhaps it is because that so much professional and public interest has been carried over to Queens that a lessened amount is left for the older boroughs; but whatever the effect of the exodus to Queens, there is no denying that another great city is being erected there—a city for middle class homeseekers, semi-rural and highly respectable. Probably not enough account has been taken in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn this summer of what has been transpiring in Queens and on Long Island when explaining general conditions,—Builders in Man¬ hattan continue busy with the great works that were laid out In the spring, but the building projects for the future are much shortened compared with last year. Since the decline in brick, there has been no special movement in building materials, except in painters' supplies. Painters are furiously busy every¬ where. Labor conditions are tranquil in all trades without exception. FOR the last week of August the real estate market has been reasonably active and interesting, and it is noteworthy that, as regards conveyances liled, the record of the whole month of August compares creditably with what was done in the cor¬ responding period of 1905, This is true of the whole city. The conveyances flled In Manhattan this week are fifteen in excess of the number filed a year ago, and in the Bronx the difference In favor of this year ia 31, Manhattan's record for the whole month also surpassed in number of filings for conveyances the BRYAN'S reception in New York was impressive, and if the Democratic convention which will nominate that party's next Presidential candidate were to be held within the next three months, there can be little doubt that Bryan would be nominated. Moreover, in case he is nominated when the time comes, it is entirely possible that he will be elected; and if such should be the case, it would only be another illustration of the truth that a politician cannot recommend himSelf to the American people better than by standing for a definite set of principles and convictions. Bryan's strength is due to the fact that he has gradually impressed the American people as an honest and able man, who can stand firm ih defeat, and who is neither cowardly nor self-seeking. It is true, of course, that he no longer insists upon the free coinage of silver, and that we do not hear as much as we once did about the crucifixion of mankind upon a cross of gold; but if Mr. Bryan no longer em¬ phasizes the earlier phase of his public policy as exclusively as he once did, that is only because the whole course of the economic development of the country plainly proves that he was mistaken. He has certainly sacrificed in the past as much as anybody can reasonably ask to his convictions on the money questions, and if he is willing to drop them now, public opinion should not quarrel with him. Mr. Bryan is to be accepted or rejected at the present time according as his present policy ts or is not calculated to advance the national welfare. There can be no doubt of his moral integrity and his patriotic inten¬ tions, and, of coiu-se, he now looms up as a moderate, conserva¬ tive and "safe" candidate compared to his most conspicuous Democratic competitor. It is not Mr. Bryan's honesty or his patriotism which can be questioned; it is rather his fundamental good sense. He means well; but he thinks badly. His opinions are in some respects too conservative, and in other respects too radical, and it is difficult to tell in advance just how his mind will act. He is liable to the aberrations of a quick and easy but undisciplined intelligence, and it is this characteristic which may again betray him into a mistake as fatal as his earlier attempt to trace all the ills of our country to the gold standard. GENERALLY it is not known that New York has 750 miles of unpaved streets, mostly in Queens and Richmond Counties. There are only two completely paved or almost completely paved cities in the United States, and both are in New England. Boston, with 500 miles of Street surface, bas only six mUes impaved, arid providence,